Numbers line chart x axis sorted from earliest to latest date

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Numbers line chart x axis sorted from earliest to latest date

This isn't a question but will hopefully be useful to someone. After searching for an easy (perhaps a bit idealistic in the Numbers charting paradigm) solution in a Numbers line chart where the x axis sorted from earliest to latest date across the axis AND the dates are represented by columns and the various values are by row, the line chart was not inspecting the dates for each appropriate dates. Yes, I checked to ensure the columns were a date & Time format. I couldn't find anything to help. I stumbled upon the Category (X) axis panel in the format panel and inspected the Label References and noticed the dates inserted as columns in the from of the spreadsheet where simply appended to the end of the listed columns. I copied and pasted these at the beginning (where they belong) and they showed up in the correct sequence. Nothing intuitive here, pulling teeth. I hope this help someone down the road.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 12, 2025 1:22 PM

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Answer 1

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Badunit

Level 7

30,336 points

Sep 12, 2025 5:21 PM in response to MWFKPA

The x "data" for a line chart is text. It appears on the chart in the order it appears in the table. It is not treating the dates as dates, it is just meaningless text that is evenly spaced on the axis in the order listed in the table. Mucking around with the order of the labels did not do what you think it did. It may have fixed the order on the X axis but the Y data did not change. It now has points plotted on the wrong dates.

If your dates are evenly spaced from each other (i.e., same number of days between each) then you can use the line chart but you'll have to sort the table by date to get it to show up on the chart in the correct order. You can also use the line chart if the "dates" are month names or 1st of each month (for example). It won't be exactly 100% accurate as an X-Y chart but probably close enough.

If you want a true X-Y chart where the X axis is actual dates and they can be in any order in the table, you need to use a scatter chart.

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